If I remember correctly, I wanted to go through all of the Harry Potter books and do a chapter by chapter review thing. Well, I recently reread Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows in a about a week. It was more of a skimming, with what little free time I have, so I didn't get all analytical about it.
My main intent with this reread was to prep for the second part of this movie and last movie of the series. And I am super glad I did this. I haven't read the book since before I saw the first part of the movie. Now, I definitely see where those that have not yet read the books are seriously confused people.
I also recently rewatched the first four movies on ABC Family. They were doing some sort of Harry Potter weekend thing on some holiday recently, not sure which, and I watched most of them. I realized just how incredibly accurate the first movie was, excluding a few very minor and unimportant continuity details. The second movie was very similar, and while I have not read Chamber of Secrets in several years, I was able to recall a few things that occurred differently. The same can be said about the third movie, but there were more things omitted or done differently than the first two.
The fourth movie was the first in the series that had some major modifications, whether it was to a minor character being omitted and his or her lines being given to someone else, or entire scenes being omitted. Nobody that has watched the movies and not read the books knows what S.P.E.W. is. And it was somewhat important. House Elves play a major role in the end of the books ...
But the fourth movie was still my favorite, as well as my favorite book, until Deathly Hallows came out (book as well as part 1 of the movie). The movie was alright, they did do some heavy modifications to some scenes and omitted quite a few scenes as well. But I was okay with this. And the reason I was okay with this was because of the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are visiting Xeno Lovegood's home. Hermione reads The Tale of the Three Brothers. And the animation in the movie was phenomenal. I was so pleased with how this was handled, it redeemed some of the other parts that were poorly handled.
Like when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to escape the Ministry headquarters. I did not realize specifically how heavily modified this scene was until I recently reread the book. They don't start transforming back in to themselves until after they've left the building. Harry, as Runcorn, and Ron and Hermione as Cattermole and Mafalda respectively, are escorting a group of muggle-born wizard's out of the building after stunning Yaxley and Umbridge. Intruders are known to be in the building but they don't know it's these three using polyjuice potion.
What screws the pooch on this is that the real Reg Cattermole shows up and his wife is there being escorted out of the building by Ron. Everything starts happening quite quickly at this point; Yaxley shows up and says to seal the exits. A balding wizard was confronting Runcorn/Harry at this time, but most of the muggles-borns were able to leave before Yaxley shows up. Harry punches the balding wizard in the face who is preventing him from leaving, and accuses him of assisting the muggle-borns from escaping. Baldy's friends yell in protest, Ron grabs Mrs. Cattermole and goes through the fire place, the real Reg Cattermole wants to know who was with his wife, and a dawning of understanding hits Yaxley who attacks Harry/Runcorn. Harry grabs Hermione/Mafalda, jumps in to the fireplace but Yaxley is hot on their heals.
It's not until AFTER they get out of the building, back through the toilets down which they flushed themselves, that Yaxley catches up with them and Hermione attempts to Apparate them away. At this point however, Yaxley grabs a hold of her arm and won't let go.
They could have done a much better job of this in the movie so people that hadn't read the book wouldn't be so confused. Instead of the dramatic slow motion chase that occurred, they could have taken those five minutes, and showed Harry/Runcorn, Hermione/Mafalda, and Ron/Reg running just with Mrs. Cattermole to the fire places and being accosted by the balding wizard, saying that they cannot take Mrs. Cattermole with them and that no one is to leave. Two seconds later, Yaxley comes in, Harry punches the balding wizard, accuses him of trying to assist Mrs. Cattermole in escaping, Baldy's friends rise up in protest, Ron grabs Mrs. Cattermole and flees through the fire place, Yaxley attacks Harry, Harry grabs Hermione and they dive for the fire place. Once out of the toilets, they show Ron (still as Reg, maybe even transforming back at this point) arguing with Mrs. Cattermole, Harry and Hermione grab him, with Yaxley hot on their heals, and as that Apparate, all they needed to show as Yaxley grabbing Hermione's arm, trailing behind her as Harry pulled her behind him. She could have been looking back to see if Yaxley was catching up and swung her arm around while doing so, just as Harry reached Ron, and then Apparated right as Yaxley grabbed her.
But no. They went the drama-ridden route and did a slow motion chase to the fireplace, which further confused viewers because they flushed themselves in to the fireplace, but now you can Apparate immediately upon reaching the fireplace?
Most non-readers didn't even know what Apparition was. Hermione tries explaining what happened after but she's in such a state of shock due to Ron's Splinched arm, that her delivery of said explanation is somewhat drowned out by her gasps for breath. Not to mention most viewers are more concerned with Ron's predicament.
That scene for me was one that I really disliked and was thoroughly frustrated after that. Luke was so confused, he thought a lot of the rest of the movie was a dream or not really happening until he asked me during a camping scene after Ron had left and I corrected him.
And now that I've seen some trailers for the last movie, I'm very scared. I'll list my concerns/questions by bullet points:
My main intent with this reread was to prep for the second part of this movie and last movie of the series. And I am super glad I did this. I haven't read the book since before I saw the first part of the movie. Now, I definitely see where those that have not yet read the books are seriously confused people.
I also recently rewatched the first four movies on ABC Family. They were doing some sort of Harry Potter weekend thing on some holiday recently, not sure which, and I watched most of them. I realized just how incredibly accurate the first movie was, excluding a few very minor and unimportant continuity details. The second movie was very similar, and while I have not read Chamber of Secrets in several years, I was able to recall a few things that occurred differently. The same can be said about the third movie, but there were more things omitted or done differently than the first two.
The fourth movie was the first in the series that had some major modifications, whether it was to a minor character being omitted and his or her lines being given to someone else, or entire scenes being omitted. Nobody that has watched the movies and not read the books knows what S.P.E.W. is. And it was somewhat important. House Elves play a major role in the end of the books ...
But the fourth movie was still my favorite, as well as my favorite book, until Deathly Hallows came out (book as well as part 1 of the movie). The movie was alright, they did do some heavy modifications to some scenes and omitted quite a few scenes as well. But I was okay with this. And the reason I was okay with this was because of the scene where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are visiting Xeno Lovegood's home. Hermione reads The Tale of the Three Brothers. And the animation in the movie was phenomenal. I was so pleased with how this was handled, it redeemed some of the other parts that were poorly handled.
Like when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to escape the Ministry headquarters. I did not realize specifically how heavily modified this scene was until I recently reread the book. They don't start transforming back in to themselves until after they've left the building. Harry, as Runcorn, and Ron and Hermione as Cattermole and Mafalda respectively, are escorting a group of muggle-born wizard's out of the building after stunning Yaxley and Umbridge. Intruders are known to be in the building but they don't know it's these three using polyjuice potion.
What screws the pooch on this is that the real Reg Cattermole shows up and his wife is there being escorted out of the building by Ron. Everything starts happening quite quickly at this point; Yaxley shows up and says to seal the exits. A balding wizard was confronting Runcorn/Harry at this time, but most of the muggles-borns were able to leave before Yaxley shows up. Harry punches the balding wizard in the face who is preventing him from leaving, and accuses him of assisting the muggle-borns from escaping. Baldy's friends yell in protest, Ron grabs Mrs. Cattermole and goes through the fire place, the real Reg Cattermole wants to know who was with his wife, and a dawning of understanding hits Yaxley who attacks Harry/Runcorn. Harry grabs Hermione/Mafalda, jumps in to the fireplace but Yaxley is hot on their heals.
It's not until AFTER they get out of the building, back through the toilets down which they flushed themselves, that Yaxley catches up with them and Hermione attempts to Apparate them away. At this point however, Yaxley grabs a hold of her arm and won't let go.
They could have done a much better job of this in the movie so people that hadn't read the book wouldn't be so confused. Instead of the dramatic slow motion chase that occurred, they could have taken those five minutes, and showed Harry/Runcorn, Hermione/Mafalda, and Ron/Reg running just with Mrs. Cattermole to the fire places and being accosted by the balding wizard, saying that they cannot take Mrs. Cattermole with them and that no one is to leave. Two seconds later, Yaxley comes in, Harry punches the balding wizard, accuses him of trying to assist Mrs. Cattermole in escaping, Baldy's friends rise up in protest, Ron grabs Mrs. Cattermole and flees through the fire place, Yaxley attacks Harry, Harry grabs Hermione and they dive for the fire place. Once out of the toilets, they show Ron (still as Reg, maybe even transforming back at this point) arguing with Mrs. Cattermole, Harry and Hermione grab him, with Yaxley hot on their heals, and as that Apparate, all they needed to show as Yaxley grabbing Hermione's arm, trailing behind her as Harry pulled her behind him. She could have been looking back to see if Yaxley was catching up and swung her arm around while doing so, just as Harry reached Ron, and then Apparated right as Yaxley grabbed her.
But no. They went the drama-ridden route and did a slow motion chase to the fireplace, which further confused viewers because they flushed themselves in to the fireplace, but now you can Apparate immediately upon reaching the fireplace?
Most non-readers didn't even know what Apparition was. Hermione tries explaining what happened after but she's in such a state of shock due to Ron's Splinched arm, that her delivery of said explanation is somewhat drowned out by her gasps for breath. Not to mention most viewers are more concerned with Ron's predicament.
That scene for me was one that I really disliked and was thoroughly frustrated after that. Luke was so confused, he thought a lot of the rest of the movie was a dream or not really happening until he asked me during a camping scene after Ron had left and I corrected him.
And now that I've seen some trailers for the last movie, I'm very scared. I'll list my concerns/questions by bullet points:
- First, I've seen a sneak peak of a scene in the movie THAT'S NOT EVEN IN THE BOOK. Ron and Hermione, in the book, return to Harry after a brief period of separation with basilisk fangs in their arms. All they do is explain that they went to the Chamber of Secrets and popped a few fangs off of the basilisk corpse. In the movie, it appears there is going to be about 5-7 minutes worth of a scene showing Ron and Hermione going to the Chamber and removing the fangs from the corpse, as well as destroying the cup of Helga Hufflepuff. Which causes the waters of the Chamber to attack them ... and it looks like they have to escape. That definitely did not happen ...
- Second, there's a lot of Harry and Voldemort battling by themselves in these trailers. Um ... that never occurs. They're always among other people. Harry does go it alone once, but Voldemort is with his crew in the Forbidden Forest, and yet we never see a shot of scene like that in the trailers. It's always just the two of them. I hope the trailers are very deceiving.
- Third, where the fuck did they get Harry and Voldemort jumping off a destroyed rampart of the castle?! There are a lot of fight scenes occurring that are just not right in these trailers.
- Harry and Voldemort don't have a prolonged connection of wands again. THIS IS SO INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT. It totally ruins the entire plot twist of the whole book. Because Voldy is not the true master of the Elder Wand, it will not work properly for him. And more so, because Harry is the rightful master, Voldy shouldn't even be able to attack Harry with it. The trailer shows them having another prolonged Red/Green lava lightning bolt connection and that is impossible. Voldy get's two shots on Harry, the first where he "kills" him, and then later when he tries to do so again, but because the wand does not belong to him, Harry overpowers him with Draco's wand using the old reliable Expelliarmus spell. That's it.
- Why are they showing flashback clips to when Harry was a baby and Lily is talking to him through the crib? That shit never happened either.
- Why are they showing the destruction of the Quidditch field? They never go near the effing thing. They're always right in front of the castle, in the castle, or slightly in to the Forbidden Forest.
- Why does Harry have a seizure after Hermione stabs Hufflepuff's cup with a basilisk fang? He didn't have one when the Locket or Ring was destroyed ...
- Why is Molly with McGonagall when she's arming the castle's magical defenses?
- Do they really have to show Tonks and Lupin reaching for each other before they die? C'mon, I'm going to be bawling my eyes out enough as it is with the death of Fred, you have to show Lupin and Tonks' deaths?!
- Why is Lucious Malfoy even given his own bit of screen time in the trailer, dammit? The only reason him and Narcissa are there is to find Draco.
- Why is the bridge to the castle being destroyed?
- WHY DOES HARRY GRAB VOLDEMORT AND JUMP OFF THE CASTLE?!?!?!?!?!?
- AND WHY ARE VOLDEMORT AND HARRY BOTH CRAWLING TO REACH THE ELDER WAND AS THOUGH HOLDING IT IS GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?! THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT!!!
- Gringotts and traveling down to the vault.
- The blind dragon that they escape on looks bad ass.
- FiendFyre looks awesome.
- MOLLY AND BELLATRIX GET THEIR FIGHT SCENE!
The possible cons outweigh the pros at this point and I am thoroughly worried. I know they're just trailers and they're typically very deceiving. Often times there are scenes in the trailers that aren't in the movie itself. So I'm trying to do my best to take these trailers with a grain of salt but I'm worried that the plot devices, the three majorly important ones (Snape is a good guy and Dumbledore and him planned Dumbledore's death a year in advance, Snape's love for Lily, Draco having been the previously rightful owner of the Elder Wand and Harry defeating him, which they did prominently display in Part 1) are made blatantly obvious because Harry comes right out at the end of the book and explains it all. In fact, I hope they have that exact scene, ver batum, in the movie. Then that way, it will ensure the non-readers will understand the plot twists.
If this scene isn't in the movie, the whole thing is going to suck balls. It's the most rewarding scene, next to the epilogue, in the entire god damned series.
I think I'm going to see this opening night ...
Since I love talking HP I'm going to number my comments :D
ReplyDelete#1 I think PoA is my favorite (book & movie - until DH), despite my umbrage (hee) with them leaving out the origin story of the Marauder's Map; that one point angered me the first time I saw it (I've since accepted and come to love the movie). It's also when I realized how much they were going to have to start relying on the audience to have already read the books from there on out; otherwise that's quite a plot-hole that Lupin and even Sirius know exactly what it is and how it works, it also leaves out a touching point about the form Harry's Patronus takes.
#2 I was at CONvergence this weekend and learned from a panel I went to that they actually took a huge chance by hiring the then fresh-outta-college animator that did the Tale of the Three Brothers sequence; a well rewarded chance. I totally agree, I LOVED THAT PART!
ReplyDelete#3 I too will be bawling when Fred dies! I like the idea that they will show Lupin & Tonks (teary as it will make me), even though it may not be in the books, because I feel it will give more sentiment to two dearly loved characters that, frankly, got the shaft a bit in the films. They completely left out their getting together at all until DH p1, and then it was a mere beginning of an announcement by Tonks, which was interrupted by Moody. Also, if they keep to the Teddy part, their death is significant to the ending.
ReplyDelete#4 Molly better say "bitch".
ReplyDeleteI think, after our respective initial viewing, that we ought to go see it together and chat like rabid fans over drinks and food afterwards, haha!
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I am horrible in the theater, making comments to myself and laughing obnoxiously at inapropriate times.
ReplyDelete